I often find it difficult to review free to play games in this column. The difficulty comes in ignoring what I see as one of a critic’s primary functions— play the games so you don’t have to spend your money on a game you might not enjoy, or play something new and unusual you might like and thus open up a new experience. When a game is free, and it comes from a popular franchise, I feel like most people would at least give it a try for themselves, rendering a critic moot. My role, in such a case, is less advising you on whether or not you would like to try it but whether you want to spend any money in an otherwise free game. And that’s a harder question.

A scene from "Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes"(Photo: Electronic Arts)

The Game

Take “Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes.” This is a free-to-play turn-based RPG game with the focus primarily on team-building and equipping your characters with all the best gear. The game itself is split into dozens of different game modes, with the main focus being on taking teams of light-side or dark-side characters through a series of three encounters. Each encounter pits your team against an enemy, with your characters taking turns unleashing attacks in classic RPG format. Each character comes with two attacks, a standard and a special. The combat is simply a matter of choosing when to use each of the two attacks, taking their cool down times into consideration. The encounters are usually quick and the variety of teams you can put together is nearly limitless, giving the game high replay value.

A scene from "Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes"(Photo: Electronic Arts)

The Experience

The majority of the experience, however, isn’t found in actually fighting enemies. It’s in navigating the menus, upgrading characters, collecting gear, and increasing your stats to be a more formidable opponent the next time you enter a challenge. There are literally a dozen different menus to navigate, most of them offering up some new challenge or game mode which, in turn, promises a unique benefit to the player. It’s in these various game modes and collectibles that the game falls short— upgrading your characters and building a team is so complicated that buying any advantage is not really worth it, as there is no way to guarantee that the money you are spending will result in the character or level you want. While the variety of game modes and challenges means you can play almost indefinitely without your “energy” running out, the overall experience is a bit confusing.

A scene from "Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes"(Photo: Electronic Arts)

The Content

Only fantasy violence here.

Rating

While bogged down by the mire of usual “free-to-play, pay-to-win” micro transaction clutter, “Galaxy of Heroes” provides some genuine fun moments when you finally assemble your entire dream team. Available for free with plenty of in-app purchases on most mobile devices.

3 out of 5 stars

Nathan Snow is a freelance writer for Where It’s @. Follow him on twitter @nathanssnow.